


Peter Has A Breakup

by nhasablog



Series: Peter Parker Is Bisexual [8]
Category: Spider-Man - All Media Types, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Bisexual Peter Parker, Break Up, Gen, Light Angst, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Sad with a Happy Ending, Tickling, Tony Stark Has A Heart, briefly af, happy-ish ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-15
Updated: 2018-10-15
Packaged: 2019-08-02 16:43:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,078
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16308905
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nhasablog/pseuds/nhasablog
Summary: “Give him some space, Tones,” Rhodey said gently when he caught him eyeing his phone for the tenth time that day. “If he needs you I’m sure he’ll call.”“That’s quite literally the opposite of what he’ll do,” Tony mumbled. “But no one’s died of a broken heart, right?”Rhodey agreed, but somehow neither of them were convinced.(Or, Peter and his boyfriend break up, and Tony has to deal with the fact that he can’t fix every problem.)





	Peter Has A Breakup

**Author's Note:**

> The last part of this little series, with a bittersweet and open ending. It was time to wrap this up and move on to other things. I hope you like it! Feedback is appreciated!
> 
> I also must thank you all for reading and commenting and being invested in the series and also showing it! It's definitely what kept me adding parts, filling requests and aiming to please an audience who was nothing but kind to me. Thank you so much for making me feel happy about writing this xx

Tony knew that a phone call in the middle of the night meant bad news, and seeing Peter’s name on the caller ID made the anxious knot in his stomach worse.

“Kid?” he answered breathlessly, still heavy with sleep.

_“Hi, Mr Stark.”_

“Are you okay? Are you whole?”

_“I’m not so sure my heart is.”_

“Wha-”

_“We broke up.”_

Tony didn’t reply immediately, blinking desperately in the dark to get his mind to wake up. “I’m sorry,” he said finally. He wasn’t surprised. Peter had been avoiding the topic of his boyfriend going away for college in a few months for ages, and Tony hadn’t had high hopes for the conversation that was bound to take place, unfortunately.

Peter exhaled shakily, and Tony’s heart broke into a million pieces. “Do you want to come over?”

A moment of silence, and then,  _“No. I just needed to tell someone.”_

“You want to come tomorrow?”

_“I’ll see.”_

“Take care of yourself, okay?”

_“I will. Thank you, Mr Stark.”_

They hung up. Tony didn’t fall back asleep for another hour, but he was sure a teenage boy in Queens was having worse luck than him on that front.

* * *

 

Peter didn’t come by for a week, and Tony knew he needed to allow him to grieve on his own and to not crowd him, but it took everything in him not to constantly check up on him.

“Give him some space, Tones,” Rhodey said gently when he caught him eyeing his phone for the tenth time that day. “If he needs you I’m sure he’ll call.”

“That’s quite literally the opposite of what he’ll do,” Tony mumbled. “But no one’s died of a broken heart, right?”

Rhodey agreed, but somehow neither of them were convinced.

When Peter finally came around, he almost looked whole. Hair in place and clothes freshly washed and eyes not entirely lacking of life, but Tony could see his heartbreak in the way he carried himself. In the way he didn’t fully smile and spoke less and refused to look Tony directly in the eyes as if he’d let him down somehow. Tony could recognize the shame, both for having seemingly failed at keeping the sparks they’d shared, and also probably due to the late night phone call. Peter was experiencing his very first breakup and had no idea what to do about it.

Tony felt almost as clueless, so he settled on finding distractions. Upgrades and requests for assistance and animated tales of his youth he had no business thinking of right now. It seemed to be working, but Tony knew the hurt never fully left the kid.

It took Peter a month to finally talk about it again.

“I’m not sure which one of us actually broke up with the other,” he said one day, the two of them having lunch alone in the kitchen. “I think at one point we both ultimately decided that long distance would ruin us.”

“Can’t know unless you try it though,” Tony pointed out.

“I know, but… I understand when a chapter is supposed to end, you know? I didn’t want him to go to college and have to worry about me back at home. It seems unfair to us both.”

“That makes sense.”

Peter shifted in his chair, staring at his plate. “I miss him.”

Tony didn’t say anything at that, and eventually Peter picked up his fork and continued eating. The wound would heal. Eventually.

The day the now ex BF left for college, Peter showed up in Tony’s lab unannounced, grabbing a hammer and going to town on a metal board he’d brought with him for some reason.

Tony watched him idly, wondering it he had any plans for that or if he simply wanted to beat the shit out of something. Figuring it didn’t really matter, he returned to his own work, waiting for Peter to either give in and talk about it, or keep it bottled while he distracted himself.

For someone who talked a lot, Peter didn’t really say much.

He finally addressed it three hours into their silent working session. “I was this close to calling him.”

Tony stilled his hands, but kept his eyes on his work to give the kid the illusion of privacy. “Why didn’t you?”

“I don’t think changing my mind just as our original trial was supposed to start would be smart.” Tony heard him drop the hammer. “Besides, I don’t know how he feels. He might think being away from me is the best thing to have happened to him.”

“I doubt that.”

“Still. Can’t know.”

Three months later, Peter told him they would be meeting up when the ex BF would come back to New York for winter break.

“How do you feel about that?” he asked, aware of how little they’d spoken about him and Peter’s feelings toward the situation. Wondering if maybe that had been the wrong approach.

Peter shrugged. “Nervous.”

“That’s normal.”

“Scared that seeing each other would open up old wounds.”

“It could also help them heal better.”

“True.” A pause, then, “I’m applying to MIT as well. Do you think it will bother him?”

“Not at all. No other school deserves you more, after all.”

“It’s big, right? No chance of constantly running into each other, right?”

“Maybe it’d be best to patch things up before that so that it’s not the worst thing to happen to you.”

“That good, huh?”

Tony gave his arm a squeeze. “You’re gonna be okay.”

Two weeks later, Peter brought him up again. “So I saw him last night.”

Tony perked up, having not expected Peter to talk about it. “And?”

“We talked. Reminisced.” The ghost of a smile found Peter’s lips, lighting his whole goddamn face up. “Apparently he missed me too.”

Almost six months had passed since the breakup, and Peter had been doing better, but Tony knew he still had that feeling of loss just beneath his ribs. It didn’t just go away entirely that quickly.

“You think the two of you will ever work it out?”

“And get back together you mean?”

“I guess.”

“I’m not sure. I think neither of us completely deny that notion, but-”

“You don’t want to force anything,” Tony finished for him.

“Exactly.”

Tony squeezed his knee, a familiar tickly gesture at this point, and smiled when Peter jumped. “Whatever happens, I’m in your corner.”

“I know, Mr Stark. Thank you.”

He was gonna be okay.

**Author's Note:**

> Here's my [tumblr](http://nhasablog.tumblr.com)


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